GMMTV is not the big bad. It is not the BL monopolizer. It does not make trash tv. It does not have bad writing. It does not have bad acting. It does not have it out for any of its actors. It’s not just trying to get quick cash. It’s just all a bit more complicated than that.
GMMTV compared to many other companies has a business model that is stable—the employees are gonna get their money and typically have plenty of opportunities to work and be promoted, which is not a promise in the industry if you follow the news. It’s big but there are much worse things happening with entertainment companies in Thailand, which is why so many actors seem more than happy to jump on board.
GMMTV is a subsidiary of ONE Enterprise, a media monopoly in Thailand, but gmmtv is not the monopoly itself. (ThamePo incredibly seems to call out the complicated ubiquitous power of ONE.) This distinction doesn’t exclude gmmtv from benefiting from that monopoly, but you’ll also need to include Change and Open Label (which manages DaouOffroad among others) as part of the monopoly when you discuss it, which starts to get in the way of the idea the there’s a specific BL monopoly. Having one company within a conglomerate dominate a genre is just not exactly how a monopoly functions tbh. And P’Tha is just the head of GMMTV, not ONE, so he’s making money moves but not at the very top level.
GMMTV’s demographic is technically teens and young adults, but the team definitely recognizes it has a much broader reach if they’re doing even the slightest market data (which they definitely are). But if you don’t like it, you might just not be the demographic. Media catering to younger viewers and their emotional needs, however, does not make it any worse than adult-oriented media that depicts more grit or explicit moral complexity. They’re just different styles.
Not every show on GMMTV is good because it puts out more shows than other companies. It has a responsibility to air series on specific television channels. This also means its business model is different, and it puts out a mix of shows with different levels of investment—that’s typical for a company that’s operating like a television network. Every year GMMTV has some clunkers, but it also every year has some series with some of the most layered writing in all of BL. There was a controversy over the meager pay (relative to Thai industry standards) offered for a writing contest a couple years ago, the winner of which is now being adapted into Love’s Echoes.
Thai media has an overall history in prioritizing looks over acting. It’s not just GMMTV. However, GMMTV was an early adopter in the industry of acting classes and acting coaches, after Nadao. Many series are filmed at a rapid pace, and so we don’t always get the actors’ most involved performances possible. Partly, that’s the nature of television over film, but some directors and actors at gmmtv as elsewhere do prioritize quality over quantity. Nuchy, Jojo+Ninew, Aof Noppharnach, Mui, and Dome Jarupat are all known for more elaborate rehearsal processes—And the upcoming director for the company jprang (Muteluv: Hello is this Luck, You Maniac) also works as an acting coach. Directors can and often do ask the actors to go through audition processes before agreeing to work on a series with them, too. That’s somewhat hampered by investment ties that travel along with actors based on popularity, but that’s not unique to gmmtv.
At least for the men and kathoey performers and staff, gmmtv has demonstrated itself overall to be a very positive and queer-friendly work environment, especially as of the executive shuffle in the 2020s. There have been female actors who have expressed dissatisfaction with their treatment at the company (Fah and more recently hinted at by Piploy)—and I mean treatment beyond optic issues like the kneeling incident—but the immediate termination of a director in 2025 after rude comments about MilkLove were discovered on his Facebook suggests this might hopefully be shifting.
GMMTV more than any other BL company seems to prioritize financial stability. It tries to diversify its content and streaming relationships as much as possible, and also puts a lot of effort into earnings through means outside of just series. GMMTV does not have a history of taking risks with its series. Another studio will typically need to prove a genre approach is financially feasible before gmmtv will go for something new. That seems to be less out of trend-hopping, though, and more out of fear of failure, because once they see an opportunity they often have writers and actors who have already been expressing a desire to work in that genre jump right on it and put their whole ass into it.
You don’t have to like gmmtv. There are absolutely issues it has as a company, and I’m sure more weaknesses and strengths will emerge or become apparent as the years go on. However, the unfounded demonization of the company just because it’s the largest and most prominent in BL is soooo boring. If you wanna hate and/or celebrate, get detailed and make sure your comparisons hold across industry standards, babes.
